Background

In addition to manifestations of gastrointestinal inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) occur extraintestinal symptoms and signs that are added to the clinical situation. Involvement can be ophthalmic, joint/bone, dermatological, vascular, urologic, renal, and hepatobiliary, amongst others. Also observed is variation of these events according to the type of IBD. The objective of this study was to describe the frequency of extraintestinal manifestations in IBD in the early symptoms.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive, and observational cohort study, with prospective data collection from a group of individuals of the clinic of the General Hospital Roberto Santos. A questionnaire was administered in patients with IBD diagnosed with Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) associated with the collection of information in the medical records regarding the initial symptoms. The sample was random, and the variables were gender, clinical signs, and extraintestinal sings and symptoms. The analysis was performed using the SPSS version 21.0, using mean, standard deviation, and relative frequency.

Results

The group is made up of CD 63 and UC 56 patients, with 119 patients with IBD. We found 64 patients with at least an early form of EIM; 53.8% (64) had initial EIM, and of these, 34 were diagnosed with UC (60.7%) and 30 CD (47.6%). Amongst patients with EIM, 70.3% (45) had articular manifestations, 23.4% (15) dermatological, 31.2% (20) ophthalmological, 9.4% (6) nephrolithiasis, 7.8% (5) deep vein thrombosis, and 1.8% (1) vasculitis. Most initial EIM cases occurred in women (79.7%).

Conclusion

EIM are common at the onset of IBD. The most frequent presentations by group were the joint, dermatological and ophthalmological, and frequently by pathology were arthritis and nephrolithiasis. These results call attention to the importance of research of these manifestations in the initial condition of patients with suspected IBD.